Radiotherapy for secondary breast cancer

Radiotherapy uses high-energy rays called radiation to treat cancer. It destroys cancer cells in the area where the radiotherapy is given, while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells.

Radiotherapy can be used to treat secondary breast cancer. This is called palliative radiotherapy. You may have radiotherapy to relieve pain from secondary breast cancer in the bone. Radiotherapy can also be used to shrink secondary cancer in the brain or lymph nodes. It can also be used when breast cancer has spread to the skin.

You may have some mild side effects from radiotherapy. The main side effect is tiredness. This sometimes lasts for a few weeks after treatment finishes. Other side effects depend on the area of the body being treated and how much radiotherapy you have.

Your cancer doctor, specialist nurse or radiographer will tell you what to expect. They will give you advice on what you can do to manage side effects. If you have any new side effects or if side effects get worse, tell them straight away. 

Some side effects can be worse after treatment ends – for example, skin reactions. It may take about 1 week before they stop or begin to slowly improve.

Doctors can also give a short course of radiotherapy to the spine. This is used when a tumour is close to, or pressing on, the spinal cord and nerves. This is called spinal cord compression.

Spinal cord compression can cause different symptoms depending on the area that is affected. These include:

• unexplained pain in your back, neck, or down your arm or legs
• pain that may feel like a tight band around your body
• numbness or pins and needles in your arms, legs, toes, fingers, chest, back, tummy or buttocks
• weakness in your arms or legs
• unsteadiness or difficulty walking
• problems controlling your bladder or bowel.

Spinal cord compression is not common but needs to be treated quickly. This is to prevent permanent damage to the nerves. Tell your doctor or nurse straight away if you notice any of these symptoms.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.